The Twelve Clauses of Betrayal

Have you ever wondered how complete and unconditional betrayal looks? How a knife looks when it is stuck by a steady hand right between the shoulder blades during a friendly embrace? How poison looks when it is mixed into a glass of water given to a man dying of thirst? As it turns out, all this looks far more ordinary and prosaic than even the most meagre and impoverished human imagination could portray. As it turns out, betrayal is simply two sheets of paper with a row of signatures at the end of a column of dry, numbered paragraphs.

The publicized text of the ceasefire agreement that was signed in Minsk is what this very real betrayal looks like. The betrayal of everything that the Novorossiya Militiamen fought and died for. The betrayal of Novorossiya itself, because, based on the text of this agreement, there is no place envisioned for Novorossiya, nor for the Militia and nor even for any “special status” for the People’s Republics.

All that this so-called ceasefire agreement provides for is a temporary status of local self-government in certain areas of the Donetsk and the Lugansk regions. Even that is conditional on the complete elimination of the Militia and the release of all Ukrainian prisoners of war; moreover, the Militiamen are obliged not only to lay down arms, but also to leave the territory of Ukraine. In return, Ukraine promises amnesty to the parties to the conflict, a national dialogue, and certain measures aimed at improving the humanitarian situation in the Donbass. The LPR and the DPR are not even mentioned in the text of the agreement, and their representatives have signed it without any titles or ranks.

Independence and statehood? Novorossiya? A temporary special status in certain areas of the Donetsk and the Lugansk regions—here is all you have of independent Novorossiya. Here is all your freedom and sovereignty. You can write out these words a thousand times, print them on paper, and then shove them deep down your throat. In any event, death by strangulation is better than death through shame. Ukraine does not even intend to give autonomy to the People’s Republics. She did not even deign to mention these very Republics in the agreement. Temporary self-government in certain areas—that is the extent of Ukrainian generosity for the rebellious Donbass.

The Militiamen? According to this agreement they are now exiles and must leave the Donbass. Forever. Yes, the merciful Ukrainian side undertakes to pardon and not to criminally prosecute them. But only after they lay down arms and remove themselves from the territory of Ukraine. After all, according the agreement, all the unlawful military formations (meaning the Militia) must immediately be withdrawn beyond the boundaries of Ukraine.

Prisoners of war? Only the Militia is obligated to release them. The text of the agreement refers only to hostages and unlawfully detained persons, and, from the standpoint of Ukrainian law, the detention of Militiamen is perfectly legal. Like with terrorists. After all, this is the label that the Ukrainian state has applied to them.

This is not even the new Khasavyurt. At least pursuant to the Khasavyurt Accord, Russia did not promise to become part of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and did not agree to expel its own army from the country. This agreement is something incomprehensible and beyond the pale; it remains a mystery as to how the representatives of Novorossiya could have signed this masterpiece of Ukrainian arrogance and conceit.

To abide by this agreement is to spit—lasciviously and with great relish—in the face of every Militiaman and civilian murdered in the conflict; to spit in the face of those who were burned alive in the Odessa House of the Trade Unions; to spit in the face of the “Madonna of Gorlovka” and her murdered child; to spit in the face of all those left disabled, all those who—in their prime—were left without arms, without legs, without eyes, all those who until the end of their days will now be crippled because of this war. And then, it is to spit in the face of those who lived in homes devastated by Ukrainian artillery and air power. All those who lost their livelihood, the roof above their heads and their familiar lives. All those who lost everything and through several long months buried friends, relatives and loves ones—buried their husbands and their sons. Those who no longer lived, but survived, after war burst into their land.

Yes, peace is needed. It is needed both by Novorossiya and by Ukraine. This war has already claimed too many lives and brought too much suffering. But what is needed is a real peace treaty and a subsequent divorce into two separate states. And the papers that were signed in Minsk do not represent a peace treaty. They contain an act of unconditional surrender that has no analogue in the world other than an agreement of annexation of the defeated party.

So we very much hope that this agreement will simply be ignored on the front-lines—that it will be dismissed as one would with a nightmare, and that Novorossiya will continue its struggle. A fight for a real Peace, until true freedom and independence are secured. After all, by honouring this agreement Novorossiya will itself, by its own hands, commit suicide.

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12 thoughts on “The Twelve Clauses of Betrayal”

You have clearly summarized the vacuousness of the ceasefire agreement. Nothing was given to Novorossiya. Don’t lose hope though. Since the Ukrainian signatory has no official government position, anyone could have signed it. Hence the agreement is null and void, and was moot from its inception.

The ceasefire is simply a trick. Seen for what it is, it’s no more than a minor setback. Why is anyone even taking it seriously?

Russia promoted the ceasefire, but I believe with a different agreement in mind. Putin was advocating an agreement that gave a large amount of autonomy to Donbass, including the choice to opt out of the EU and NATO, to have control of their border with Russia, to have freedom of foreign trade, and to keep their militia. By the time it came to the signing in Minsk, the agreement had become Poroshenko’s plan. Why the Novorissiya forces respect it, I imagine they are fooled into believing it is a binding contract.

I’m so very confused and it doesn’t help that I don’t know the backgrounds of all of the characters, even though I read every day. I need a glossary of players. Anyway, Gleb, did you read the entry Saker’s by Alexander Mercouris?

I’m with you that Novorossiya can be nothing less than a free and INDEPENDENT state. I’m also still hoping it will encompass the entire Azov and Black Sea coasts and Kharkov/Kharkiv oblast. IOW, this ain’t over. That said, I disagree with those who have talked about taking all of Ukraine. There’s simply too much Russia hate in that shithole of a country. A legitimate new country needs popular support and I don’t think that can be found in Banderastan.

I’d really like to read an in depth article on all of the factions to better understand the dynamics of what’s going on.

It would seem I have much to learn….to understand just what is the underlying reality of the document. A reason these decisions should be embedded in understanding of what has been called ‘the street’.

The street is angry!
Yet again a case of THIS IS MY TERRITORY IF YOU DON’T LIKE IT- LEAVE!
It looked like the start of a separate independent area for those who want no part of this Ukraine. As the article says the truth is in whats ignored…
Independence and statehood? Novorossiya? A temporary special status in certain areas of the Donetsk and the Lugansk regions—here is all you have of independent Novorossiya.

The battle seems to be between concentrated wealth, in every nation that allows it (including the RF), and peoples right to self determination. So far, as has been largely the case over the last many millennia, concentrated wealth has more cross border solidarity than the people it parisitizes. Successful struggles, like Cuba’s, involve an expulsion of the parasites and sincere self governance that frightens elite parasites everywhere in the World. This makes for a continuous war by global elite against anything that looks like a slave rebellion in the eyes of massive wealth. The same dynamic is occurring in Novorussiya. Slave revolts, such as the original Haitian rebellion at the turn of the 19th century, terrify the ruling global parasitic elite. It is an existential challenge to oligarchs everywhere, since as they understand all to well, self determination and real freedom is terribly catching, and, if allowed to flourish, will destroy them. Freedom for Novorussiya would, therefore, be expected to be opposed by Russian oligarchs (in secret), and I see this betrayal as a natural development and a sign of success. Wishful thinking seems to be obscuring an understanding of the expected ambivalence of the Russian elite towards a peoples rebellion, which looks more like a nascent slave revolt to them. Everyone who accepts cash for their time is a slave due to the extortion by bosses who use threatened destitution and suffering of the unemployed to keep their slaves in line (as well as a vast array of other dirty tricks like debt). A capitalist regime like Russia is always going to sabotage working people while attempting to look like a friend.

That said, Spartacus did it, Cuba did too, and the fact of eventual defeat for these efforts to live free of chains is just a reflection of the fact that the World continues to be ruled by intelligent psychopaths who are being forced to the wall and resorting to unvarnished terrorism. The horrors will escalate till the hour of their defeat. The degree of suffering that elite elements inflict on the people is just an indication of the rising of the oppressed. The worse they are the closer to liberation we will be, so lets morn the dead and celebrate the crimes of wealth as omens of eventual victory.

Everyone, including the most downtrodden, can find opportunities to resist, opportunities to sabotage the system of oppression that binds them. The obstinacy of billions of tiny acts of rebellion is stronger than the mightiest army of oppression. But when actual battle erupts military victory becomes the only option. Gunilla tactics become the main tool.

Bomb elite neighborhoods of Kiev? The Salvadoran civil war did not end until the rebels occupied the elite neighborhood of Escalante in the capital. To win, think outside the emotional and intellectual box you have been trapped in by millennia of slave master control. The people united will never be defeated.